#13

Good barbie was had yesterday at Russ's 20. Barkfoot didn't bring any wild vegetation for eating (a fact that is perhaps disappointing to anyone who has read one of his recent blog entries about wild foods), but he did bring a variety of more conventional foods to add to the barbie spread, mainly: assorted chunks of dead pig soaked in some kind of nice red marinade, garlic infused mushrooms and tomatoes, and corn on the cob. So the sausages and burgers Russ lays-on as standard, and Barkfoot's BYO food, made for good eating as is typical on these Sunday evening barbies. Personally I no longer bring food offerings to Russ's barbies since Barkfoot brings loads and Russ already has loads layed-on, and in the past folk rarely managed to munch their way to my offerings, Barkfoot's being munched into before mine because they were always interesting looking creative food offerings: sometimes things on long skewers, other times ribs, and this time what looked-like (before it was opened) a bag of assorted human giblets in blood from an organ donor bank, but as I already mentioned, to everyones' relief, they turned-out to be pig bits in bright red marinade.... and very nice they were too.

Due to the bad weather over this summer this is only the second such barbie this year and even optimistic projections would predict we'd be hard pressed to get-in even half as many as in previous years.

Everyone at the barbie seemed in good fettle...Russ is settling into his new work-at-home job OK, but putting in long working days to make sure he makes an impact on productivity sooner rather than later. Maxine looked well and although I didn't see the twins (since they were already in bed) there were no reports of toddler-fun-spoiling coughs nor colds amongst them. The other (visiting) Russ seemed quite happy apart from having had his bicycle wheel deliberately run-over by a mad BMW driver on the mean streets. Timmy Town was looking a-head to starting Uni after her stormingly successful academic year just gone. Generally everyone seemed well and we all had a good feed, drink and relaxing chat. Perfect period, me thinks, a nice oasis in time and space...for those at the barbie that is: Sophie could not come to the barbie and was at home with a terrible migraine headache :-(

Right. Now to watch an episode of the Munsters I recorded earlier today. Excellent. Oh yeah ...and to anyone who dare say that the Munsters is crap and that it is just a cheap rip-off of the Adams Family TV series (as to my sadness Hermit once did): you people have no soul. The Adams Family is so up its own arse... The Adams Family is just for non-intellectual snobs. The fact that the basic character traits of the Adams family (that they enjoy experiencing or doing horrific sinister things) is, firstly, simply not sustainable (they would wipe them selves out within one generation), and secondly it is too at odds with the outside world: they just could not coexist for long before they were institutionalised. Where as the Munsters is much better: it does not take itself too seriously (even though it could since it is a most clever and most top quality programme), plus the character traits are that they only like the look of horrible/spooky/dark looking things -- they don't like actually doing horrible things -- the emphasis is on the aesthetic and hence is not self-destructive -- they are essentially a family of very cheerful, kind, well-meaning Goths -- thus this is a totally sustainable basis and is hence much more believable and hence more funny ... it does not require frequent crappy suspensions of disbelief that make the Adams Family unwatchable for anyone not in an inane snobby coma. So there. Oh yeah... and the Munsters theme tune is ace.



(Oh yes, apologies to American readers for the seemingly over use of the word 'arse' in my blog entries. To explain: it is not really a swear word as such in the UK, but, admittedly, it is a bit of a lowly word.)